the zero house is an attempt to meet the highest goals in sustainable building

EDIT is a ten-day festival for design, innovation and technology in toronto and produced by design exchange, whose overarching theme for its inaugural edition is ‘prosperity for all’. a 150,000-square-foot abandoned factory is transformed into an ultramodern world where design, innovation and technology are the solutions to today’s grand challenges. held from september 28 to october 8 2017, the festival explores a world where crickets can combat global hunger, medical supplies are 3D-printed in outer space, drones deliver blood to remote communities, and shipping containers are the future of farming.

recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects, a key component of modern waste reduction and often objective for eco-aware contemporary designers. as well as breaking down old materials to create new ones it also includes upcycling: the process of creating something new and better from old items. in contrast to reusing or recycling, upcycling uses existing materials to improve upon the original ones. the end result is often a product or item that is eco-friendly and at times hand made and one-of-a-kind. here we gather the latest on innovative, socially and environmentally-responsible design projects demonstrating a creative desire for sustainability and/or cost effective approach.

zero house is a collaboration between the endeavour centre and ryerson university, in which students and faculty create a model building (one unit of a stackable townhouse design) that meets the highest goals in sustainable building. using a wide range of natural and minimally-processed or recycled materials, zero house provides its occupants with a zero energy bill, as the solar electricity generated on the roof (using unique BiPVco adhesive solar modules) fully offsets the building’s energy usage. the project is presented as part of EDIT, a ten-day festival for design, innovation and technology in toronto.

the team constructs prefab building panels

the endeavour centre and ryerson university’s ‘zero house’ is literally ‘built from carbon’, with plant-based materials making up the vast bulk of the building’s assembly. this results in a net sequestration of 25 tons of CO2, rather than a typical building’s greenhouse gas emissions of 28-45 tons. materials were selected to completely avoid any red list chemicals, and any questionable chemical content or off gassing materials. a unique through-wall ventilation system from lunos ensures excellent indoor air quality over the long term.

a team of 10 students and three faculty from endeavour centre built the home in just 44 days, and then reconstructed it at the EDIT festival site in just seven days. ‘zero house’ is proof that it is possible to meet the highest aspirations of the construction industry for reducing climate impacts, energy efficiency, occupant health and safety and ecological responsibility with existing technologies at an affordable cost.

completed wall panel ready for installation

each prefab building element is craned into place, resulting in very short construction time

roof panels are placed within a couple of hours, resulting in a weather tight building immediately

exterior is fully wrapped in mento high performance air and weather barrier

interior wrapped with intello ‘smart’ vapor control layer for high thermal performance and durability

students make tadelakt interior finishing panel, part of the healthy, non-toxic interior finishing

zero house is reassembled for display at the EDIT expo in downtown toronto

interior of the 1,000 square foot building uses non-toxic columbia plywood as a key finish

EDIT is a 150,000-square-foot immersive experience that envisions a world transformed by unparalleled design, innovation and technology solutions. produced by design exchange, in partnership with the united nations development programme (UNDP), the inaugural festival will ignite conversations through an array of curated exhibits, compelling talks, and inspiring installations. inviting some 100,000 visitors to east harbour (formerly unilever soap factory) in toronto’s port lands, EDIT challenges visitors and participants to consider how we can make the world a better place.

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: lynn chaya | designboom

Chris Magwood

oct 04, 2017

0

0

0

0

Not only—it looks livable also. Good one. Get Amazon to sell them …Sears sold houses?!

LOG IN

designboom's comment policy guidelines generally speaking, if we publish something, it's because we're genuinely interested in the subject. we hope you'll share this interest and if you know even more about it, please share! our goal in the discussion threads is to have good conversation and we prefer constructive opinions. we and our readers have fun with entertaining ones. designboom welcomes alerts about typos, incorrect names, and the like. the correction is at the discretion of the post editor and may not happen immediately.

what if you disagree with what we or another commenter has to say? let's hear it! but please understand that offensive, inappropriate, or just plain annoying comments may be deleted or shortened.

- please do not make racist, sexist, anti-semitic, homophobic or otherwise offensive comments. - please don't personally insult the writers or your fellow commenters. - please avoid using offensive words, replacing a few letters with asterisks is not a valid workaround. - please don't include your website or e-mail address in your comments for the purpose of self-promotion. - please respect jury verdicts and do not discuss offensively on the competition results (there is only one fist prize, and designboom usually asks renown professionals to help us to promote talent. in addition to the awarded designs, we do feel that almost all deserve our attention, that is why we publish the best 100-200 entries too.)

a link is allowed in comments as long as they add value in the form of information, images, humor, etc. (links to the front page of your personal blog or website are not okay). unwelcome links (to commercial products or services of others, offensive material etc. ) will be redacted. and, ... yes, spam gets banned. no, we do not post fake comments.

a diverse digital database that acts as a valuable guide in gaining insight and information about a product directly from the manufacturer, and serves as a rich reference point in developing a project or scheme.